Embracing the realities of life with honesty, wit, and my blue-eyed girl

Toothless

Last Saturday I had my first real scare as a mother. In some crazy freak accident, my 13 month old child knocked her tooth out.

That’s right. She knocked the entire front tooth clear out of her mouth.

Desirae was in her crib, down for her morning nap. I’m not exactly sure when she woke up, but eventually I heard her chatting happily to herself. Just before I went to get her, I heard a big bump followed by a scream. I ran into the nursery to see her sitting in her crib, crying, and I figured she must have bumped her head. I picked her up and held her close thinking everything was fine. When I pulled her away, I saw blood all over her mouth, her hands, on my shoulder, and a little tooth sticking straight out at me… Oh my goodness. I freaked out.

What does a mother do in that sort of situation? Was I supposed to run to the ER? Take her to urgent care? Do I pull the tooth all the way out or do I leave it in there? How do you stop a mouth from bleeding?

I really don’t know how it happened. How does a one year old kid create enough force to knock her tooth out while sitting in a crib? She wasn’t even trying to climb out! My guess is that she was running in the crib (she recently discovered the thrill of running on mattresses), tripped, and then knocked her mouth on the railing. But hey, your guess is as good as mine. My only clue is the bite mark in the crib railing that will forever remind me of that horrific moment.

Shortly after the incident, I decided to pull the tooth out before she swallowed it, the bleeding stopped, and then Desirae ran around the house like nothing ever happened. Seriously, kids are resilient.

Of course, I was the one who was devastated. My sweet baby girl just lost a tooth that she only had for about six months. Now she is going to remain toothless for the next five to six years. Was this my fault? If I had gone into the nursery sooner, could I have prevented this from happening? Does this make me a horrible mother? Will my child have a lisp forever? Is this going to mess up her teeth? A million questions, worries, and HORRIBLE mom guilt flooded my mind.

Afterwards, Aaron and I took Desirae to see a doctor. He said everything looked find, gave us some care instructions, and told us to follow up with a dentist. I’m glad I didn’t rush to the ER and have a giant hospital bill to add to that day.

I guess the tooth fairy just wanted to come really, really early for this kid. How can you blame her though? Desirae is pretty adorable. Who wouldn’t want to have an excuse to visit my sweet baby as soon as possible?

A few days later, Desirae and I made her first trip to the dentist. I never imagined taking my one year old to the dentist. You know your baby is out of place when someone is asking you to put your baby in a chair that doesn’t come with a five point harness. Overall though, Desirae did great. She was a little freaked out when the dentist’s chair started involuntarily reclining, but she kept her cool. She let the dentist look at her teeth and even got her first X-ray. (I had to hold her for that part.)

The dentist said everything looked good, but what’s done is done. All we can do is wait until her adult teeth come in. So the dentist gave Desirae her prize, and we walked out of the office, hopefully not to return for at least another year.

Desirae seemed pretty happy to visit the dentist. She got a little plastic fish out of the deal. All I have to say is, this fiasco better not have been Desriae’s ploy to get herself a toy that probably cost less than 5 cents. If I had known she wanted a little fish so badly, I would have bought her a thousand plastic fish in exchange for her tooth. It probably would have been a lot cheaper. Next time she should just tell me what she wants instead of go to such drastic measures to get herself a toy fish that I’ll probably throw away in a couple of days.

Anyway, I feel like I’m finally far enough removed from the disaster that I can laugh about it. Though I really wish I had seen this Chewbacca video from Candace Payne last weekend. I think it really would have cheered me up. I cried a LOT that first day, and some the next. But Desirae has been happy as a clam. After about 20 minutes, Desirae couldn’t have cared less about the accident. Plus, I think I’m starting to become fond of her little lisp. I bet when her adult teeth grow in, I’ll miss her lisp and toothless smile.

I have to say, the best thing about this whole situation is I don’t have to figure out what we are going to wear for Halloween. This year we are going to dress as the characters from How to Train Your Dragon. Aaron will dress as Hiccup. I will be Astrid. And Desirae will go trick-or-treating dressed as Toothless.

7 thoughts on “Toothless”

You did good mom. I would have panicked so bad. And would be afraid to pull the tooth out. I’ve had tooth accidents as a kid and it sucked because now my front teeth aren’t straight. That’s why i always fear for the same thing with my son. But accidents happen. And it’s something we can’t control. And definitely doesn’t make us a bad mom.

Oh. When it happened I totally panicked. But the tooth was so lose I figured it would fall out if I didn’t pull it. And apparently that was a good decision because it’s possible that she could have inhaled he thing and then the tooth would have ended up I her lungs. 😱 That would have been REALLY bad.

Hello! Welcome to my blog, where I embrace the realities of life with honesty, wit, and my blue-eyed girl. I'm a stay at home mom fueled by coffee and a whole lot of grace. Follow along as I write about motherhood, marriage, and whatever life brings me!Search for: